For anyone without twatter, it's still a rumour from @cirogazzetta:
> Info @Gazzetta_it - as @bvdecap (ed: Bram Vandecapelle, journalist at HLN in Belgium) pointed out, also from our sources we understand that for Simon Yates (now with Jayco-AlUla) from 2025 @vismaleaseabike is the most likely destination. In @GreenEDGEteam
from 2025 there will be Ben O' Connor (deal almost done) @cycling_podcast
Edit: [HLN article the tweet it based on](https://www.hln.be/wielrennen/simon-yates-op-weg-naar-visma-lease-a-bike-ondertussen-krijgt-tour-ploeg-extra-vorm~ac7a7c35/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F) + translation (DeepL with some tweaks):
> **Simon Yates on his way to Visma - Lease a Bike, meanwhile Tour team takes shape**
Visma - Lease a Bike's Tour team is taking shape more and more. In addition to Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert, Wilco Kelderman and Jan Tratnik are also being drummed up. They will replace Steven Kruijswijk and Dylan van Baarle, respectively. Looking ahead to next season, famous reinforcements are on the way. Simon Yates, winner of the 2018 Vuelta, comes over from Jayco - AlUla and should become the new reserve leader.
To say that Visma - Lease a Bike is not having its best season is an understatement. In April the Dutch team could not win a race, in May only once and in June it is also dry for now. The main cause for that drought is the frequent injury to the leaders, but CEO Richard Plugge and co. realize that standing still is equal to going backwards, so they are already making plenty of work to strengthen the team in function of 2025.
The classics core will be strengthened with Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) and French sprinter-puncher Axel Zingle (Cofidis). The transfer with the most name and fame, however, is located in the Grand Tour work. Simon Yates is end of contract with Australia's Jayco - Alula and would be replaced there by Australian Ben O'Connor, who is end of contract with Decathlon - AG2R.
Our sources tell us that the 31-year-old Yates is angling for a team, which already has leaders in GT racing, so he can share responsibility and leadership. Ineos - Grenadiers asked for for the 2018 Vuelta winner, but according to our information, Visma - Lease a Bike would come out on top. Just as his twin brother Adam is doing in Tadej Pogacar's position at Team UAE, Simon Yates Yates should come in just below Jonas Vingegaard in the Dutch team's pecking order and become the reserve leader in the GC work along with Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss. Cian Uijtdebroeks should also be able to claim that status in time, but our 21-year-old compatriot still needs time to reach the desired and consistent level.
Yates finished fourth in last year's Tour. He is also on the start list this year. So he will run into his future teammates plenty in July.
The Tour team of Visma - Lease a Bike is taking shape. Tiesj Benoot, Jorgenson and Kuss, who recovered from illness in the Dauphiné, are the certitudes. Jonas Vingegaard, Christophe Laporte and Wout van Aert are also making progress every day on altitude training in Tignes. Van Aert returns to Belgium on Friday for the national championships. If he gets through the final week of training well and stays fit, the Tour seems a certainty.
Van Aert should not be seen as the replacement for the injured Dylan van Baarle. That will be Jan Tratnik. The Slovenian winner of the Omloop wanted to ride the Tour, but because he is leaving for Bora - hansgrohe after this season, the team management preferred not to. He was given a spot on the Giro team, but due to Van Baarle's injury, the team needs a rouleur and Tratnik may now ride the Tour as well. He joined the Tour squad in Tignes last week.
The eighth pawn as a replacement for the also injured Steven Kruijswijk will normally be Wilco Kelderman. Kelderman missed the Giro due to a collarbone fracture, but made a good turn in the Tour of Switzerland. He finished ninth, despite losing a minute in the first mountain stage due to a crash.
The part about Ineos being interested in signing Simon is a bit sus, since apparently they have a policy against signing riders that were caught doping.
(However, if they sign a rider and then dope him, that seems to be a-okay.)
I legit can't tell if this is a joke or not...?
If it is, very funny! A+++, all the kudos. Made me laugh.
In case it's not and you weren't aware:
(No shame in that, it just changes the premise of the comment and my answer TBF)
Simon Yates doesn't really need a Kuss style Vuelta win.
He already won himself, the old fashioned way, with no-podium lock-out and all.
This was in 2018.
It's kinda funny, because at least until pretty recently, Simon was probably seen as the better/most successful one of the twins, despite his occasional epic off days.
(I really really enjoy the hilarious 3rd/4th Yates swap in conspiracy for explaining those days, not gonna lie. Whether it's Richard or Philip, one of those dudes is not as good a rider as the other Yateses in the gang... 😝)
He looked pretty primed to win the 2018 Giro before that, but then Froomey, Finestre and what's probably the most famous Yates related off-day happened.
But he did go on to win the Vuelta later that year.
Funniest thing about Simon Yates is imo however that he legit has been an elite track world champion as well. In points race.
My brain has had this fact embedded for over a decade and and I still can't make it fit with his size and later career imo. 🫣😵😅
Matteo, Sepp, Cian*, Wilco all on paper have similar capabilities. I think if you switch roles Simon still beats them but not by much.
It does make sense to have him as co leader though with these younger guys. Allow them to learn and not have as much pressure on them while giving them a reliable option and a long term option as well.
This year in general as been terrible for them staying healthy so they feel extra “not there”
My instinct was to challenge you and argue that Simon would leapfrog all of those riders as GC leader at one-week races not attended by JV (ie. one of UAE, Algarve, P-A/T-A, Romandie, TDSuisse). And while I do think that, at least in the moment, he could lead over Cian, Wilco, and possibly Sepp, this really does feel like a desperate attempt to keep up in an arms race against UAE for the TDF.
While some may see this as a boring deepening of an already phenomenally deep team, I am kind of thrilled at the commitment of both teams to fighting this war in July every year for the foreseeable future.
As we look at UAE’s tour team this year (especially in the context of what Other Yates and Almeida just did at TDSuisse), and wonder whether it’s the best GC team ever assembled, we can look at this proposed Visma team next year and feel a great deal of excitement about the absolute war chests that each squad will be bringing.
>It does make sense to have him as co leader though with these younger guys
Wilco is older than Simon, and Sepp isn't far off at 29. Matteo is kind of in the middle (too old for young rider's jersey, but only 24). Only Cian is truly young.
I think you have to add an /s to that (and maybe explain the joke that Adam did some great lead outs for Vingegaard as part of UAE's mountain train last year).
Can't imagine he's going to the Tour in any other capacity than a domestique. They need to fill the Roglič-sized hole for Giro and Vuelta since Cian is having less than optimal season so far.
I think you're spot-on. Fourth as last year is probably his upper ceiling at the Tour and he'll have better chances for Giro and Vuelta podiums or even wins at Visma than on any other team, including UAE due to internal competition.
After departure of their main sponsor Jumbo, Visma did stock up, but the PON group mainly provides material sponsoring (bicycles, vehicle park, …), so their budget is bellow the ridiculous money available to the the big 4. I still believe, Simon is rumoured at the same pay check level as his brother for two years. Ineos is big on the asking market because their rooster is much older, but there are very few proven winners on offer.
Nevertheles, being Dutch and merchants down to the bones, VLAB keeps investing even if this means laying off the non-riders staff and streamlining other operations.
Yates is only 31. He probably has 3 seasons yet where he can expect to be a GT contender. Given their track record, Visma might have the ability to give him the chance to finally win a Giro.
Well he can still improve as his brother. The form of Adam is quite similar to last year and only monsters like Pogacar and Vingegaard came ahead of him in Le Tour. So it is not a bad move at all.
Simon Yates also had a good 3rd week of the tour last year and came 4th. He can definitely be up there still in the Giro/Vuelta depending on the field.
Lukewarm. I think even big Kuss fans (like myself) agree with that. And if you think he can match his brothers recent performance now that he's at Visma, Kuss would definitely be relegated to 3rd in the pecking order. That's fine tho. True GC Kuss fans love Domestique Kuss fireworks just as much.
I don’t mind this at all…Yates has possibly been underperforming at Jayco for a while and hopefully Visma can give him the support for another shot at the Giro. Plus Visma probably do need another elite climber to compete with UAE at the Tour.
Not insane to say Yates would be their 2nd best GC rider (for grand tours, 4th at the tour last year) is it? Kuss coming off the back of the Vuelta win albeit team dominated, Uijtdebroeks still coming into form, and Jorgenson unproven in grand tours as leaTour.
Hope he gets sent to the Giro as leader, not just used as a mountain super-domestique in the tour.
It would be quite controversial to put any of Kuss, Uijtdebroeks or Jorgenson ahead of Simon Yates in the GC hierarchy right now. While Cian and Matteo might prove to be perennial contenders we just don't know that yet.
Uijtdebroeks and Jorgenson will likely prove themselves in the coming seasons (having a higher future potential) but as of right now I'd put Yates ahead in the hierarchy, as for the future who can say.
Between Kuss and Yates is more difficult to ascertain from a spectators point of view. I put Yates ahead based purely of last year (and my thinking) of 4th in the tour being more difficult than 1st in the Vuelta (as it was so Jumbo dominated).
This speculation is of course useless, by the time S. Yates is actually on the team at the start of the next season their performances this year will obviously have a large say in the team hierarchy.
(Just realised I misread you comment as saying the other way round, points still stand I guess).
I pick Simon over Sepp as my GC leader every day of the week.
It's difficult to compare the palmares of Yates and Kuss since Sepp has almost exclusively been riding as a luxury domestique and rarely for his own chances. But if we do it anyway, I would say it's not even close. Yates has consistently been challenging top 5s, podiums and overall wins in grand tours and major tours since 2015. He has 6 gt top 10s including a Vuelta win and 14 one-week top 10s including a Tirreno win.
Can't wait to see what he can do on a different team. Always felt that he was being held back by staying at Greenedge for so long. Hopefully he gets leadership/co-leadership at the Giro or Vuelta.
It’s mad how much I root for Ineos now compared to like 5 years ago. I have a real underdog complex, enough for me to support a team owned by bloody Jim Ratcliffe.
A trident where one prong is far superior to the others and is easily the captain and decision maker until he's out of contention. Kind of like leader and super domestiques.
Me thinks he's a backup GC contender in case Vino falls apart due to suboptimal training. Sepp Kuss was that guy but he's clearly not in shape to be a GC backup.
Always thought S.Yates could have won more at a bigger team. Obviously baseless but imagine Visma over Jayco has the science and structure to stop him having his usual bad day in a tour
Not sure if I believe these rumors just yet. Which other teams was Simon Yates linked to so far? I thought I remembered an article connecting him to a Bora or Lidl-Trek move possibly.
Can the teams please stop crying how poor they are? They lose their number two sponsor but can pay Yates?
When they already have half a dozen riders that could be leaders/headliners and are surely making big money?
Patrick wants to be able to compare Visma's training to UAE's so needed a twin study
Some German Doctor liked this
Damn..
That's like an anime storyline bro
For anyone without twatter, it's still a rumour from @cirogazzetta: > Info @Gazzetta_it - as @bvdecap (ed: Bram Vandecapelle, journalist at HLN in Belgium) pointed out, also from our sources we understand that for Simon Yates (now with Jayco-AlUla) from 2025 @vismaleaseabike is the most likely destination. In @GreenEDGEteam from 2025 there will be Ben O' Connor (deal almost done) @cycling_podcast Edit: [HLN article the tweet it based on](https://www.hln.be/wielrennen/simon-yates-op-weg-naar-visma-lease-a-bike-ondertussen-krijgt-tour-ploeg-extra-vorm~ac7a7c35/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F) + translation (DeepL with some tweaks): > **Simon Yates on his way to Visma - Lease a Bike, meanwhile Tour team takes shape** Visma - Lease a Bike's Tour team is taking shape more and more. In addition to Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert, Wilco Kelderman and Jan Tratnik are also being drummed up. They will replace Steven Kruijswijk and Dylan van Baarle, respectively. Looking ahead to next season, famous reinforcements are on the way. Simon Yates, winner of the 2018 Vuelta, comes over from Jayco - AlUla and should become the new reserve leader. To say that Visma - Lease a Bike is not having its best season is an understatement. In April the Dutch team could not win a race, in May only once and in June it is also dry for now. The main cause for that drought is the frequent injury to the leaders, but CEO Richard Plugge and co. realize that standing still is equal to going backwards, so they are already making plenty of work to strengthen the team in function of 2025. The classics core will be strengthened with Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) and French sprinter-puncher Axel Zingle (Cofidis). The transfer with the most name and fame, however, is located in the Grand Tour work. Simon Yates is end of contract with Australia's Jayco - Alula and would be replaced there by Australian Ben O'Connor, who is end of contract with Decathlon - AG2R. Our sources tell us that the 31-year-old Yates is angling for a team, which already has leaders in GT racing, so he can share responsibility and leadership. Ineos - Grenadiers asked for for the 2018 Vuelta winner, but according to our information, Visma - Lease a Bike would come out on top. Just as his twin brother Adam is doing in Tadej Pogacar's position at Team UAE, Simon Yates Yates should come in just below Jonas Vingegaard in the Dutch team's pecking order and become the reserve leader in the GC work along with Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss. Cian Uijtdebroeks should also be able to claim that status in time, but our 21-year-old compatriot still needs time to reach the desired and consistent level. Yates finished fourth in last year's Tour. He is also on the start list this year. So he will run into his future teammates plenty in July. The Tour team of Visma - Lease a Bike is taking shape. Tiesj Benoot, Jorgenson and Kuss, who recovered from illness in the Dauphiné, are the certitudes. Jonas Vingegaard, Christophe Laporte and Wout van Aert are also making progress every day on altitude training in Tignes. Van Aert returns to Belgium on Friday for the national championships. If he gets through the final week of training well and stays fit, the Tour seems a certainty. Van Aert should not be seen as the replacement for the injured Dylan van Baarle. That will be Jan Tratnik. The Slovenian winner of the Omloop wanted to ride the Tour, but because he is leaving for Bora - hansgrohe after this season, the team management preferred not to. He was given a spot on the Giro team, but due to Van Baarle's injury, the team needs a rouleur and Tratnik may now ride the Tour as well. He joined the Tour squad in Tignes last week. The eighth pawn as a replacement for the also injured Steven Kruijswijk will normally be Wilco Kelderman. Kelderman missed the Giro due to a collarbone fracture, but made a good turn in the Tour of Switzerland. He finished ninth, despite losing a minute in the first mountain stage due to a crash.
"Twatter" 😂. Going to use this from now on
Please make it a thing. I cannot believe I did not think of it and salute you u/epi_counts
"twatter" has been around for a while, but calling it Twitter is punishment enough for the failed rebranding into X.
Yes, I've seen it before and it seems a good way to describe the platform now!
The part about Ineos being interested in signing Simon is a bit sus, since apparently they have a policy against signing riders that were caught doping. (However, if they sign a rider and then dope him, that seems to be a-okay.)
Interesting! He'll be a direct rival to Adam now
Wasn't he that also as GC guy for Jayco?
Perhaps parent means they’re now both super-domestiques.
Nah he means Visma v UAE rivalry
I meant both!
Ok! Would love to see him do a Vuelta Kuss.
I legit can't tell if this is a joke or not...? If it is, very funny! A+++, all the kudos. Made me laugh. In case it's not and you weren't aware: (No shame in that, it just changes the premise of the comment and my answer TBF) Simon Yates doesn't really need a Kuss style Vuelta win. He already won himself, the old fashioned way, with no-podium lock-out and all. This was in 2018. It's kinda funny, because at least until pretty recently, Simon was probably seen as the better/most successful one of the twins, despite his occasional epic off days. (I really really enjoy the hilarious 3rd/4th Yates swap in conspiracy for explaining those days, not gonna lie. Whether it's Richard or Philip, one of those dudes is not as good a rider as the other Yateses in the gang... 😝) He looked pretty primed to win the 2018 Giro before that, but then Froomey, Finestre and what's probably the most famous Yates related off-day happened. But he did go on to win the Vuelta later that year. Funniest thing about Simon Yates is imo however that he legit has been an elite track world champion as well. In points race. My brain has had this fact embedded for over a decade and and I still can't make it fit with his size and later career imo. 🫣😵😅
Yes, bc they're both superdomestiques
You think that's the bigger variable here? It's not.
Yeah but now he is in the exact same spot as Adam as a super-domestique/secondary gc guy.
UAE and Vismas mountain domestique-depth is getting ridiculous now!
Yay ! Another top climber going to domestique for one of the big teams.
Is he though? Do they have anybody better to send to the giro while Vingegaard is doing the tour?
Matteo, Sepp, Cian*, Wilco all on paper have similar capabilities. I think if you switch roles Simon still beats them but not by much. It does make sense to have him as co leader though with these younger guys. Allow them to learn and not have as much pressure on them while giving them a reliable option and a long term option as well. This year in general as been terrible for them staying healthy so they feel extra “not there”
It took me a minute to find out who is Ciao :)
Lol thanks!
My instinct was to challenge you and argue that Simon would leapfrog all of those riders as GC leader at one-week races not attended by JV (ie. one of UAE, Algarve, P-A/T-A, Romandie, TDSuisse). And while I do think that, at least in the moment, he could lead over Cian, Wilco, and possibly Sepp, this really does feel like a desperate attempt to keep up in an arms race against UAE for the TDF. While some may see this as a boring deepening of an already phenomenally deep team, I am kind of thrilled at the commitment of both teams to fighting this war in July every year for the foreseeable future. As we look at UAE’s tour team this year (especially in the context of what Other Yates and Almeida just did at TDSuisse), and wonder whether it’s the best GC team ever assembled, we can look at this proposed Visma team next year and feel a great deal of excitement about the absolute war chests that each squad will be bringing.
>It does make sense to have him as co leader though with these younger guys Wilco is older than Simon, and Sepp isn't far off at 29. Matteo is kind of in the middle (too old for young rider's jersey, but only 24). Only Cian is truly young.
The cutoff for the white jersey is turning 26 in the current year, Matteo still counts
That's what I get for looking at the suggested result without checking closer. Seems I saw the Tour de France Femmes cutoff of 23.
Yates better tter than all of them and kuss cannot be trusted
Definitely not the hill I die on but I’d probably give him the benefit of the doubt still, even if he has not done a thing to earn it yet.
Until Adam joined UAE Simon was also widely the most GT successful of the twins. By far.
This rumour was already reported a week ago in dutch media, but only in a sidenote in other news. I still don't see it.
[удалено]
You think Visma isn't doping? 💀
[удалено]
I think you have to add an /s to that (and maybe explain the joke that Adam did some great lead outs for Vingegaard as part of UAE's mountain train last year).
no I was brain dead haha :D
Can't imagine he's going to the Tour in any other capacity than a domestique. They need to fill the Roglič-sized hole for Giro and Vuelta since Cian is having less than optimal season so far.
I think you're spot-on. Fourth as last year is probably his upper ceiling at the Tour and he'll have better chances for Giro and Vuelta podiums or even wins at Visma than on any other team, including UAE due to internal competition.
Damn, really feels like the GreenEdge era is truly over
What do you mean? They still have Ewan
Jumbo with their "small" budget again
After departure of their main sponsor Jumbo, Visma did stock up, but the PON group mainly provides material sponsoring (bicycles, vehicle park, …), so their budget is bellow the ridiculous money available to the the big 4. I still believe, Simon is rumoured at the same pay check level as his brother for two years. Ineos is big on the asking market because their rooster is much older, but there are very few proven winners on offer. Nevertheles, being Dutch and merchants down to the bones, VLAB keeps investing even if this means laying off the non-riders staff and streamlining other operations.
Yates is only 31. He probably has 3 seasons yet where he can expect to be a GT contender. Given their track record, Visma might have the ability to give him the chance to finally win a Giro.
Well he can still improve as his brother. The form of Adam is quite similar to last year and only monsters like Pogacar and Vingegaard came ahead of him in Le Tour. So it is not a bad move at all.
Simon Yates also had a good 3rd week of the tour last year and came 4th. He can definitely be up there still in the Giro/Vuelta depending on the field.
A GT contender in a team with 2x younger GT winners+ WVA?
He's a better GC rider than Uijtdebroeks, at the moment anyway. Would be a good rider to send to one week races or GTs Jonas doesn't want to do IMO
> 2x younger GT winners To those confused, it's Sepp Kuss
I have to admit I'm guilty of being confused despite posting GC KUSS for 2 years leading up to and during his win.
Hot take time or maybe lukewarm idk. Yates is a better GT rider than Kuss Kuss on his day is a better climber than Yates
Lukewarm. I think even big Kuss fans (like myself) agree with that. And if you think he can match his brothers recent performance now that he's at Visma, Kuss would definitely be relegated to 3rd in the pecking order. That's fine tho. True GC Kuss fans love Domestique Kuss fireworks just as much.
bruh what...I hate the development of super teams the last few years.
Tour 2025 over yet?
No, why would it be?
its dumb joke my guy
I don’t mind this at all…Yates has possibly been underperforming at Jayco for a while and hopefully Visma can give him the support for another shot at the Giro. Plus Visma probably do need another elite climber to compete with UAE at the Tour.
Not insane to say Yates would be their 2nd best GC rider (for grand tours, 4th at the tour last year) is it? Kuss coming off the back of the Vuelta win albeit team dominated, Uijtdebroeks still coming into form, and Jorgenson unproven in grand tours as leaTour. Hope he gets sent to the Giro as leader, not just used as a mountain super-domestique in the tour.
It would be quite controversial to put any of Kuss, Uijtdebroeks or Jorgenson ahead of Simon Yates in the GC hierarchy right now. While Cian and Matteo might prove to be perennial contenders we just don't know that yet.
Uijtdebroeks and Jorgenson will likely prove themselves in the coming seasons (having a higher future potential) but as of right now I'd put Yates ahead in the hierarchy, as for the future who can say. Between Kuss and Yates is more difficult to ascertain from a spectators point of view. I put Yates ahead based purely of last year (and my thinking) of 4th in the tour being more difficult than 1st in the Vuelta (as it was so Jumbo dominated). This speculation is of course useless, by the time S. Yates is actually on the team at the start of the next season their performances this year will obviously have a large say in the team hierarchy. (Just realised I misread you comment as saying the other way round, points still stand I guess).
I pick Simon over Sepp as my GC leader every day of the week. It's difficult to compare the palmares of Yates and Kuss since Sepp has almost exclusively been riding as a luxury domestique and rarely for his own chances. But if we do it anyway, I would say it's not even close. Yates has consistently been challenging top 5s, podiums and overall wins in grand tours and major tours since 2015. He has 6 gt top 10s including a Vuelta win and 14 one-week top 10s including a Tirreno win.
Can't wait to see what he can do on a different team. Always felt that he was being held back by staying at Greenedge for so long. Hopefully he gets leadership/co-leadership at the Giro or Vuelta.
Goddammit man. Fuck
It’s mad how much I root for Ineos now compared to like 5 years ago. I have a real underdog complex, enough for me to support a team owned by bloody Jim Ratcliffe.
TDF GC: 1. UAE/JBL Leader/co leaders 2. UAE/JBL super domestiques 3. UAE/JBL mountain domestiques 4. Other leaders :D :D
Their not leaders, super-domestiques and mountain domestiques, its a trident.
A trident where one prong is far superior to the others and is easily the captain and decision maker until he's out of contention. Kind of like leader and super domestiques.
Me thinks he's a backup GC contender in case Vino falls apart due to suboptimal training. Sepp Kuss was that guy but he's clearly not in shape to be a GC backup.
Always thought S.Yates could have won more at a bigger team. Obviously baseless but imagine Visma over Jayco has the science and structure to stop him having his usual bad day in a tour
Not sure if I believe these rumors just yet. Which other teams was Simon Yates linked to so far? I thought I remembered an article connecting him to a Bora or Lidl-Trek move possibly.
Can the teams please stop crying how poor they are? They lose their number two sponsor but can pay Yates? When they already have half a dozen riders that could be leaders/headliners and are surely making big money?
Teams like Visma will continue pretending they are poor underdogs as long as their fans lap it up. Which they do.
You say this like they didn’t just pocket all that money from Rog! I doubt highly that all the signings have added up to his wage.
Whatever Jonás was getting he is due for a huge increase. Rog was never under contract for 2025
God I hope not
We need a salary cap rule desperatly now 😭😭